Advocacy and Power Program
This program was an ASRC initiative, designed to give refugees and people seeking asylum the skills to speak publicly about their personal experiences.
Given a Chance - Akuol Garang is a Sudanese-Australian woman. Her story was recorded by participants at one of the APP workshops. You can watch her TEDx talk HERE.
My partner and I ran a series of storytelling workshops for the APP. Through the process of producing audio slideshows, we identified personal stories beyond the sad and shocking experiences we often hear from refugees and people seeking asylum. We found stories of courage, resilience and transformation.
Many of the participants are on indefinite temporary visas so they are always being reassessed and cannot be identified for fear of compromising their status. For this reason, their stories can’t be told.
Sayed Rahmatullah Hussainizada - is a refugee from Afghanistan. His words and these photographs were recorded by participants during the APP workshop. Sayed now lives in Sydney where he is a practicing solicitor.
Kagi and Alyas - experimenting with camera angles and composition
“Alex and Adam know how to communicate with a spectrum of people from all around the world and build the trust with individuals to open up and tell their story.”
— Ahmad Hakim - Advocacy and Power Program Coordinator, ASRC